Abstract Only

The aim of this paper was to assess whether farmer welfare in the Central Valleys of the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, could be enhanced through participatory crop improvement while maize genetic diversity is maintained or increased. The underpinning project rationale is conservation of potentially valuable alleles in landraces that have evolved on farms under natural and human selection pressures. The paper characterizes the unique structure of the economic costs and benefits of the project, which include both private and public benefits; estimates the private costs and benefits to farmers as well as from the perspective of a private investor; and describes the distribution of benefits among social and economic groups. Farmers as a group obtained a high benefit-cost ratio from participating. However, from a private investor perspective, benefits are not likely to justify the cost. There is a clear gender bias in both participation and benefit distribution, though there is also evidence of a positive welfare transfer to maize deficit households. Many public benefits of the project would be exceedingly difficult and costly to document. The study raises issues concerning the application of standard economic methods to impact analysis in similar situations.

Socioeconomics Program

Text in English

0309|R01CIMPU|AGRIS 0301|AL-Economics Program

CSME01

CIMMYT Staff Publications Collection